Has Barack Obama Failed America?

Talk about coming out swinging, but some might say with light gloves, and a misguided punch. Mitt Romney began his first day as a declared Republican presidential candidate by trying to land blows on President Barack Obama.

Romney is expected to say in a speech later today that "Barack Obama has failed America.”

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, is reaching out to the GOP's conservative base, and he hopes independents, by addressing the real frustration, and yes, fear, that many Americans have about their future and their economic well-being.

But Romney's broadside raises questions. Does he actually consider the death of Osama bin Laden and the rebirth of the American automobile industry, which is hiring workers and has an economic ripple affect, as failures? Does he have a solution for the economic malaise that much of the country feels or for the high unemployment rate that devastates many communities and particularly working-class Blacks, whites and Hispanics? Does he have a way for the still-moribund national real estate industry to claw its way out of the pit?

Romney also said, "A few years ago, Americans did something that was, actually, very much the sort of thing Americans like to do: We gave someone new a chance to lead, someone we hadn't known for very long, who didn't have much of a record but promised to lead us to a better place. At the time, we didn't know what sort of a president he would make.... Now, in the third year of his four-year term, we have more than promises and slogans to go by. Barack Obama has failed America."

Criticism is cheap. Answers to economic policy questions are expensive. Without real solutions Romney’s fellow Republicans and other Americans may remain on the fence about this candidate’s ability to get the job done.